The number of property sales falling through has increased for the first time since the height of the Covid pandemic market boom, according to House Buyer Bureau. 

The latest index reveals that 78,042 sales are estimated to have been subject to a fall through during Q2 of this year. 

This marks a 9% increase compared to the previous quarter and the first quarterly increase since a market peak of 87,817 in Q2 of last year.

However, the level of fall throughs seen in Q2 remains 11% down annually versus the peak seen in Q2 2021. 

The latest figures show that the average fall-through now costs those involved £3,209 per transaction, a 2% increase on the previous quarter and a 9% annual jump. 

Data shows the total cost of transaction fall throughs to the UK property market exceeded £250m in the second quarter of this year alone. 

This represents 11.2% more than Q1 this year, with the total cost of fall throughs in 2022 so far alone hitting almost £476m. 

In 2021, this total market cost hit over £1bn, which the House Buyer Bureau says is the highest annual cost to the market in the last four years, with 2022 looking likely to come close, if not exceed this threshold. 

House Buyer Bureau managing director Chris Hodgkinson says: “While the volume of fall throughs had been in slow decline, they’ve started to climb once again in 2022. We expect this upward trend to continue, but the driving factors behind this increase are likely to be very different in the current market.”

“We’ve seen mortgage rates spiral in recent weeks and this increased cost will cause many buyers to get cold feet, having already agreed a sale but not contending with a far higher cost of borrowing.”